


Adjustments

by bomper



Category: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:09:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2794280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bomper/pseuds/bomper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Beast becomes human once more, Belle knows she SHOULD be happy.<br/> </p><p> </p><p>(This story features broad depictions of sexual activity between Belle and the Beast pre-finale. If that's not your cup of tea, please don't read!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adjustments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boywonder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boywonder/gifts).



Everything's changed! It's all wrong. Wrong, wrong, _wrong!_

Belle stares at herself in the mirror, but she doesn't like what she sees in her eyes. This isn't fair of her. She should be happy - but everything keeps changing around her, and the one thing she'd thought she could trust, that the Beast was - was, well, the Beast! - has _changed_ too!

"I should be ecstatic," she says miserably, flopping down to sit suddenly on the side of her bed, as if all the air had simply blown out of her. "Prince Adam is clearly a good man, who no longer deserves his punishment." 

But... 

But Beast was a kind, good man in himself, or at least had grown to be so. It doesn't seem right at all that being Beast was a punishment. Not when he'd shown her such gentleness and care. 

_Soft fur under her fingers. Surprisingly soft lips against hers, with just a hint of fang..._

She should be out there with him, even though Cogsworth had told her to take a moment for herself, that he would be fine after they'd given him some private care. She should be there - 

\- A tap at the door, and she opens it to find Mrs Potts behind it. This is a transformation, too, but it is somehow easier to bear. Mrs Potts should be human, she feels, unlike her own sweet Beast, but then Belle instantly wants to curl up in guilt at the meanness of the thought. 

"The Prince is - are you all right, dear?" 

Mrs Potts' first words die on her lips and she bustles inside with concern, closing the door behind her. 

Belle nods at first, then shakes her head, then nods again, then covers her face with her hands. 

There are warm, strong arms around her instantly. Mrs Potts smells like tea, and flour, and those delightful lemon biscuits that were so often served at afternoon tea. Good, kitchenly things. Strong things. A strength of someone who's been in a difficult position but has come through it as well as anyone might. 

How many difficulties must she have faced, being a teapot for so long?!

"I'm being unfair," Belle says gaspingly, unevenly, into Mrs Potts' shoulder, and she can hardly understand the words she's hearing and she's the one speaking them! But she suspects that Mrs Potts knows exactly what she means. 

She feels her back being rubbed, and a gentle voice saying, "Shh, go slowly, pet, take as much time as you need." 

* * * * * 

After a long moment where she doesn't quite cry but doesn't quite not, either, Belle is able to pull back. "Is he truly all right?" she asks, and it isn't just duty. She knows that he is still Beast - somehow. Even if she cannot see her Beast in him anywhere. 

"Yes. Simply very tired." 

Mrs Potts produces a handkerchief from somewhere, and Belle obediently blows her nose. 

"He's a good man," Belle says, and she's not sure if she's stating, or asking. 

Mrs Potts nods, and a hairpin falls loose, allowing a strand of snowy white hair to dangle over her purple shoulder. "He had to work at his temper, but once he realised how it bothered others, he did. That's the mark of a good person, my dear. Not being perfect. Working at one's flaws."

"...do you think... perhaps if someone were a little uncomfortable and wished she weren't... that she might work at it?"

There's another slow, smiling nod. "That someone should do so slowly, if she needs to. His feelings are important. But so are hers." 

 

* * * * * 

It's an hour or so later when he's ready to see her, and she enters his room most nervously.

He seems dwarfed in the huge bed, under the ridiculously ornate canopy in gold and brown.

_Her lips were gentle just next to the abrasion beneath his claw, which he gained from saving her._

_He looked up at her, and stammered something awkward that had the words 'Belle' and 'I'm sorry' and 'you don't need to' in them, but in no particular way which made a comprehensible sentence._

_She put her own finger to his lips, and he quieted, eyes huge. She was startled for a moment by the softness of his lips against her skin, and the tickle of the fine fur just under his lower lip._

"Are you all right?" he asks her anxiously, and she wants to throw something at him.

She seats herself next to him, and manages to reach out to touch his hand. It's smooth. Too smooth. But he's kind, and worried about her, which is ridiculous. "You are ridiculous," she tells him with helpless affection. "Are YOU all right?" 

He laughs, shakily. His eyes are so deep. Alien. 

(At least he looks nothing like Gaston.) 

The laughter weakens as he searches her face, then looks away. "I'm quite all right. A little weary. I. Er. Would like to discuss the wedding?" 

"Certainly," she says, but it's obviously not as enthusiastically as he'd like, and he shrinks in on himself. He looks even smaller in the enormous bed now.

_His claws carefully sheathed, he runs his paw down her hip, over her thigh, and she shivers where she sits astride him. They have not joined, not yet. They are only naked, together, and even that is a symphony._

_"Good?" he asks softly. Unlike how she's quite sure certain people would behave, it's not a request for ego-stroking. It's so clearly a request for instruction, for her to tell him if she'd like more, less, or something else entirely. He is only concerned about her._

_...perhaps too concerned. He seems nervous._

_"Stay still," she tells him firmly. She cups his face. She leans down and lets the tips of her breasts touch the smooth fur of his bare chest. His mouth opens wide in amazement as her eyes half close in pleasure. She kisses him, taking the lead so that he doesn't need to worry about hurting her with his fangs._

She tchhes at herself, and moves from the chair next to the bed onto the bed itself, arranging her skirts tidily as she sits. Of course. Their first time together. 

"Stay still," she instructs him, and he looks at her with sudden hope.

Ah.

 **There.**

There he is. Her Beast.

She cups his face, taking her time. Her fingers span further across him now. Her fingertips brush golden hair, and she traces the lines of his cheekbones with her thumbs. He is not weeping, yet his eyes are very bright on hers. 

She leans in and kisses him, taking the lead so that he doesn't need to worry about hurting her by being different.

Everything changes for her, too often. But everything _always_ changes. She has her Beast, she has her friends, and for now that is more than enough.


End file.
